One question for clarification: Are you doing your Fuji transfers in the dark, and if so, any thoughts on safelights or dim room lighting?

I work in a dimly lit room:
As far as a safe-light..I really can't say specifically because I haven't tried a "safe light" per se.

All I ever do is simply make sure that no bright direct light strikes the film after peel-apart ....during those few seconds it takes to place the negative face down onto the receptor sheet.

I leave a lamp on in the adjoining room and a small light on the other side of the room. Just enough light to see what I'm doing.

First I place my receptor sheet on the glass surface in front of me on my work table.

I have a desk lamp positioned right above my work area and I switch it off just before I pull the white tab through the rollers.

In the darkened room..I just allow my eyes to adjust to the dim light and check that I can see the sweep second hand clearly on my watch and that I can see properly to position the negative on the receptor sheet.

Then I pull the white tab and then the black tab and glance at my watch to start the 20 second timing.
When 15 seconds goes by I then quickly get prepared to position the negative over the receptor sheet. At the 20 second point I quickly pull off the un-used positive and place the negative face down on the receptor sheet and smooth it flat quickly with my free hand to insure that it is down flat and no light will leak under it..

... At that point I can NOW turn the light on over my work area and procede to roll with the brayer roller.

My desk lamp is positioned right above ( 6-10 inches or so) the film to help keep it at a good temperature for developing properly.

It's really all rather easy.
No big deal ...the light only really needs to be out for only a few moments during the time the peel-apart occurs.
.... just before placing the film down on the receptor paper.. that's all.

The transferred image was a bit pale and thin or washed out.... but I contribute that (lack of density) mostly to the fact that I was copying from a color ink-jet print instead of copying from a good, rich-colored, regular silver halide color photo.

Anyway my point here today is that I decided to experiment with water-color painting over the transferred image (much as I used to be able to do with Polaroid transfers) using just some simple 99 cent kid's watercolors and it seemed to work well.

In my experiments with watercolors in the past ( using Arches88) I couldn't use watercolors because just the clear water itself seemed to effect or dilute the transfer and even if it didn't effect the transfer colors the watercolors would swell-up the paper. Because the paper is acting like a sponge and does not allow one to brush on in any reasonable way.

However, using the Rieves "Heavyweight" paper today, it took the watercolors quite well.

I was afraid the water might dilute the FUJI dyes ...but that didn't seem to be the case.

I didn't want to "paint" over the image so much as I just wanted to sort-of tint the image using very thin watery "translucent-like" colors.

My goal was to allow much of the definition of the photo to still appear through the watercolors and NOT to have the opaqueness of the watercolor paint obliterate most or any serious amount of the detail beneath it.

Last edited by Pbpix; 04-26-2008 at 03:16 AM. Click to view previous post history.

I blatantly just did a dry transfer of a "used" fuji whatever negative (after I peeled it from the original at the correct time) in the light onto my english test. It has color shift, probably due to the time difference, possibly due to fogging, I doubt it though. I took the negative and placed it down and rubbed it with my knuckles for about 20 seconds to reveal an image. I was completely unaware it was that easy. I will be having much more fun in the future :-D.

scratches on Fuji transfers?

I could use some advice. I purchased a DayLab pro a few months ago and have now used it twice. I'm finally getting the hang of working with Fuji film in the semi-darkness, and haven't had any problems with solarization yet, but I am having emulsion problems. Some of my transfers come out with long scratch-like marks on them. They are always the same direction, which makes me worried that something is wrong with the roller. For instance, if the image is horizontal, the scratches would be running from the top to bottom (IE vertically) within the image

I'm always quite careful when I pull out the film, so it's very hard to try to identify what could be making this happen. It's about 50-50, which is maddening, as it really wastes the film. I'm using Arches 88 paper.
Any thoughts? Thank you!!!!

I could use some advice. I purchased a DayLab pro a few months ago and have now used it twice. I'm finally getting the hang of working with Fuji film in the semi-darkness, and haven't had any problems with solarization yet, but I am having emulsion problems. Some of my transfers come out with long scratch-like marks on them. They are always the same direction, which makes me worried that something is wrong with the roller. For instance, if the image is horizontal, the scratches would be running from the top to bottom (IE vertically) within the image

I'm always quite careful when I pull out the film, so it's very hard to try to identify what could be making this happen. It's about 50-50, which is maddening, as it really wastes the film. I'm using Arches 88 paper.
Any thoughts? Thank you!!!!

You might want to examine the metal rollers in the film back holder.
Try cleaning them thoroughly with a small brush and some warm water.